Sensitizing and expanding our perception of what is allegedly a familiar reality is the attitude Düsseldorf-based photographer Andreas Gefeller adopts in his work. His most recent photographs are clearly more formal and structural, and they exhibit striking pictorial qualities. The Japan Series originated on the occasion of the European Eyes on Japan project, within the scope of which European photographers are invited each year to capture their impressions of this Far Eastern country on film. Gefeller takes at least two shots of utility poles vertically from below. In the subsequent digital composite the poles disappear, and the innumerable cables and transformers are converted into an abstract composition against a monochrome background. Other photographs depict plants, their branches winding around rectangular wire mesh or wooden grates. The absence of points of reference and orientation in these works opens up a new perspective on familiar situations. Our Collector’s Edition shows one of these only seemingly abstract structures. Broad bands of electric cables are crisscrossed against a black ground. The composition seems light, ethereal, minimalized — and, interestingly enough, extremely Japanese.
